


The Tree

by darlathecyborgpluviophile



Category: Blue Sky Portal, Portal
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Fluff, some ptsd-ish stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 20:10:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5715520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlathecyborgpluviophile/pseuds/darlathecyborgpluviophile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wheatley wants to decorate the house for Christmas. Chell is leery, but manages to find something simple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tree

Chell swept her eyes about their tiny, barely furnished living room. “You want to do what?”

“W-well, you know, I was just thinking, the other day, when we were over at Romy’s, her house was amazing! I don’t know how she does it with those, those…rascals, and that dog, but there were those twinkly lights, and paper snowflakes on the ceiling, and the great big tree in the living room! So, I was, you know, just thinking, why don’t we do something like that? Amp up the-the decor, if you will. And it’s not like we have anyone to try and tear it down like she does, so all I-”

“Wheatley.”

He hadn’t even noticed his gaze had wandered until he was struggling to look at her again.

“You want to decorate for Christmas?”

“Well, yeah, I suppose I do,” he giggled nervously.

Chell placed her hands on her hips and looked about the living room again. Not once since she had arrived in Eaden had she decorated for the holidays. It had taken her a year to get any furniture in the house in general, much less apply any sort of whimsy or seasonal factors. Wheatley being in her life again had already changed so much, and she wasn’t sure if changing something else about her simple, safe life so soon was a good idea.

“…Let me think about it.”

His face lit up. “Really? You will?”

She nodded, reached into the kitchen for her apron, and tied it around her waist. “I’ve got more orders than usual because of the holidays. Do you mind helping a little?”

 

****

 

Chell often rose with the sun, waking up at the crack of dawn and enjoying the comfortable silence she so rarely had anymore. As much as she enjoyed Wheatley’s presence in her life, and as much as she did love him, personal time away from any people or noise was mandatory for her mental well-being. 

She sighed. Christmas decorations, huh? Where would they even put them? It seemed pretty late in the month to start decorating now anyway, with the holiday itself in only a week. She remembered the look he’d gotten on his face when she said she would think about it. He had looked just like a hopeful child, not unlike the ones that lived in the town and were typically overexcited this time of year. 

Puzzle pieces slid into place, and she was able to picture their homely bottom floor with nothing but a smallish, simply decorated pine tree in one corner. After meditating on the image for a few minutes, weighing the pros and cons, thoroughly examining the situation, she figured that having something as simple as a tree in their living room for a few days wouldn’t be too bad. As long as they didn’t do anything else to change the appearance of the living room.

When Wheatley finally came shambling down the stairs, she was already dressed and gone.

 

****

 

“Well, well, well, mystery girl’s appeared in my store. On a different day than usual, no less.”

Chell smiled wryly at Aaron as she walked up to his counter.

“’F you need Garrett, he’s in the back.”

“I’m fine. Do you have any pine trees left?”

“What’s this? Are you going to be celebrating the holidays?” His voice dropped down to a whisper. “This a surprise for your little friend?”

She nodded. Aaron straightened up and smiled, leading her all the way through the store and into the lot out back.

“So,” he said, fishing around in a box near the few pine trees left. He found a pair of old, worn gloves and pulled them on. “What’re ya looking for?”

“I just need something small. Do you have something that would ft in the space between the couch and the wall in my house?”

He put a gloved hand to his forehead, thinking before he ventured out to the group of trees he and Garrett had gathered. After a few minutes, he waved Chell over to him.

“This looks like it’d fit. I can’t know for sure without measurements, but-”

“It’ll fit.”

Aaron didn’t bat an eye at the certainty with which she’d made the claim.

“Great, I’ll trust you. I know you’re good at this sort of thing. Spatial puzzles and the like.”

Chell winced a little at the comment before moving around to examine the tree from all sides. 

“Hey, I wanted to say, I’m actually kinda proud of you.”

She stopped examining the tree to look at him quizzically. 

“Well, you know…I know that you’re not one for change. With whatever’s happened in your past, I know you like your own, personal, safe bubble. That’s completely understandable. But I think it’s brave of you to do things like invite your jumpy little friend to live with you, or decorate your house differently, or hell, even break your routine and come to the store on a different day than usual.”

He smiled and looked down, wiping the dirt from his gloves on his musty jeans. “I dunno. Just something I noticed. You’re a strong one, mystery girl.”

Chell didn’t respond. Luckily, Aaron moved on before she had the chance to. 

“So, you haven’t done this before. You wanna check out some things to put on your tree? They’re back in the store.”

 

****

 

“AH! You’re back, thank god, I-”

“Wheatley, come help me.”

After roughly ten minutes of fidgeting, maneuvering, and heavy lifting, the small tree sat in just the spot Chell had imagined, already shedding needles all over the sitting area.

Wheatley, despite being tired from helping bring boxes and a whole tree into the house, was ecstatic. 

“Wow, that’s a lovely shade of green, isn’t it? I’m surprised you were able to find one that fit so perfectly, it’s amazing. I can’t wait till we put things on it, like…oh, what did Romy have? Garlands, lights, little shiny things, glass balls, I remember there were these little indiscernible white things on a piece of string, not sure why she had those, especially since the twins seemed eager to eat it rather than look at it, and I think there were-”

Wheatley’s rambling monologue was cut short by Chell motioning him down to help her look through the two boxes Aaron had given to them.

The decorations were simple; all the ornaments were the same pearly white color, the gold and white garland rolled into neat spools, and a single, glittering plastic star to top it all off. In the second box was a knotted rat’s nest of lights with a small bag of extra bulbs resting on top of it. 

“What–that’s it?” Wheatley said, pawing through the box with the ornaments. 

“I didn’t ask for much. I thought that a simple tree would work for our first time around.”

Wheatley was clearly disappointed, but didn’t bother pursuing the matter further. Chell brought the box of lights closer to her and began working on getting the large knot undone.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to help with that? I mean, it’s pretty big, a great big deal of lights, and I think it might be too much for one person?”

She smiled gently. “I’m fine.” The truth was, untying knots was an incredibly meditative hobby of hers, especially if there was an end goal in mind. Back when Garrett was still trying to get Foxglove to work, it had been her specific job to untangle any cords or wires he needed. It was a puzzle, not unlike the ones she had been forced to solve back There, but just different enough to allow her to think clearly and remind herself she was away from all that.

Eventually, once the lights had been straightened, bits of garland had gotten everywhere and Wheatley had broken a few ornaments, their tree was complete.

To Wheatley it was simplistic yet majestic; strikingly beautiful.

To Chell, it was a glowing, foreign object in her living room.

The end of the day came quickly. Wheatley excitedly plugged the lights in once it got dark out, and was so awestruck that he almost didn’t hear the kettle whistling from the kitchen.

Chell sat, fidgety on her couch. It was too different, too bright and unfamiliar, even after a day of it being up. Soon enough, Wheatley came over with two steaming mugs of tea, babbling on and on about how, really, this couldn’t even hold a candle to Romy’s decorations because while they had been large in number, they had been mismatched and eclectic, but theirs all complimented each other and it was their tree, all theirs-

Wheatley paused momentarily to look at Chell’s reaction, and instead of her usual patient smile, she was glaring at the small, festive pine tree.

“Hmm? Wh-what’s the matter? Have I said something wrong?”

Her expression softened just a tad, and she shook her head. Her whole body was tense, curled up on the complete opposite end of the couch from him. She picked at a loose thread hanging from the arms as she reached for one of the mugs in Wheatley’s hands. 

Not knowing what else to do, he simply sat down and put his free arm around her balled up form.

“I knew about Christmas before this, you know.

She didn’t say anything. He kept talking.

“I remember–even as a robot, there was always a time during the year when the scientists would put up these…these long, sparkly decorations -I assume that it as something like the garland we used today- in the halls of the labs or in the offices. They made trees and things of the latex gloves they were required by protocol to use when they did experiments. There were other things I never payed much attention to as well, probably much like the ones we have on our tree, I-I dunno. I, uh, well…once, I asked someone what it meant when they did this because, I mean, at the time it puzzled me.”

He took a drink from his mug and scratched his head. “He said it wasn’t important at first, but after much, erm, what’s the word…? Cajoling, right, he relented and I learned that some of it was for a human holiday called ‘Christmas’ and some was for another human holiday called ‘Hanukkah’. I remember, I wanted to learn so much more about what that all meant, about what made the scientists just a little more lifelike and even kind this time of year. Of course, no one ever told me more than that. We can’t trust stupid ‘ol Wheatley, now can we? No, we just want him to leave us alone so we can have our human celebrations in peace.”

He made a face. Chell was still slightly on edge, but definitely less than before. Quickly, he changed his expression and looked into his mug.

“But now, look at me!” He made a grand, sweeping gesture with his arms, accidentally smacking Chell in the back of the head. “Oop. Sorry. But seriously, here I am in the real world, with real trees and real friends and a real body and knowledge of these holidays that made me so curious all that time ago. Knowledge of a lot of things, actually, I could probably go on and on about all the things I’ve learned since I got out of There. But for right now, I think I’m most happy about this. And knowing you, of course,” he finished, beaming at Chell.

She sighed, and a tired smile came to her lips. “I’m glad I know you too, Wheatley.” It was a simple phrase, no different structurally than the ones she used daily, but it carried powerful meaning and emotion behind it. Wheatley seemed to pick up on this, and gave her a brief but equally meaningful squeeze. After their tiny display of affection, Chell stood up, and placed her mug on the wooden table in the center of the room. She took a look back at the tiny tree and Wheatley looking starry eyed down at it. She smiled softly, unconsciously using the look she had coined just for him.

As she walked up the stairs to their room, she reflected on possibly getting him a gift on the day the holiday actually arrived.


End file.
